Page 121 of By the Sword
The lawyer, Nathaniel Freeman, bowed low over the hand Kate held out to him.
‘Mistress Ashley, this is an unexpected pleasure.’ he said, indicating a chair and resuming his place behind his vast table, covered with neatly arranged stacks of paper.
Kate smiled at the lawyer as she arranged her skirts. There were formalities to be concluded before she could get to the real reason for her visit.
‘I must thank you, Master Freeman, for all you have done for us in the past months. We have received the promised compensation for our troubles after the affray at Worcester and, with God’s blessing, have weathered the winter.’
‘I am glad to hear it. We have intended to pay a visit to Seven Ways when the weather improved, but as you know the winter proved harsh and of course,’ he waved a hand at his desk, ‘the press of work.’
‘I quite understand,’ Kate said.
She looked down at the velvet mask she held in her hands. She had already asked so much of this man and had rehearsed what she had planned to say but now the words escaped her.
‘Master Freeman, I have come to ask one more favour of you.’
He sat back and pressed his fingertips together. He wore a lawyer’s inscrutable mask and she wondered how he would react to her question.
‘My dear, Mistress Ashley, whatever is in my power.’
Kate gathered her courage and brought her gaze up to look the man in the eye. ‘I am looking for Jonathan Thornton,’ she said.
No flicker of emotion crossed the man’s face and her nerve faltered.
‘Jonathan? A known malignant, a wanted man? What is Jonathan Thornton to you?’ he asked.
Kate hesitated a moment. ‘He is everything to me.’ Taking a deep, steadying breath she raised her eyes and met his gaze without blinking. ‘You have been good to us and I’ll not lie to you. I hid him after the battle at Worcester and saw him safely on his way by early October. He intended to make his way to London and from here to the Continent but to the best of my knowledge he never gained the Continent.’
Nathaniel Freeman’s mask wavered and she saw a momentary uncertainty in the line of his mouth.
‘How do you know?’ he said.
‘I know he would have sent word, had he reached safety. However poor a correspondent he may be, he gave me his word but I did not become truly concerned until Nell received this letter from her husband.’
Kate handed him a much folded, crumpled and stained letter.
‘Nell received this scarcely two weeks ago. Lord Longley wrote it shortly after Christmas, nearly three months after Jonathan left us.’
Nathaniel put on a pair of glasses and peered at Giles’ impatient scrawl, reading aloud:
Dear Heart, God knows if this will reach you but I pray that it does for you will know that I have reached Amsterdam safely. The knee has mended well but we are a sad and sorry crew, so many friends lost or imprisoned. While I do not wish to alarm you or Kate, I hold great fear for Jonathan of whom there has been no word. I have made extensive enquires in other likely places he may well have turned up, Holland, France and Spain and the like but there is no sighting or word of him. Perhaps he has decided to turn to the New World and we will hear shortly of his doings in Barbados or Virginia? Few know better than I his aptitude for turning up where least expected. I hope that perhaps by the time this letter reaches you one or other of us may have some better news. My love as always to you and Ann and the new baby. Keep yourself well and give Kate my warmest regards. Yr Loving husband, Giles L.
‘He has vanished,’ Kate said, a note of desperation rising in her voice. ‘I have been in London nearly a week. Every day my man has been down on the docks but all to no avail. If any of the boatmen know anything they will not tell me and so I have come to you.’
Nathaniel Freeman laid the letter on the table and regarded her from over the top of his eyeglasses. ‘They would not talk to strangers, Mistress Ashley. You need to know the right people to ask.’
She sat forward eagerly. ‘Please, can you tell me where I should look, who I should ask?’
Nathaniel took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘You should have come to me sooner.’ He sighed and replaced the spectacles. ‘Or I should have come to you. Firstly please let me put your mind to rest on at least one count.Jonathan reached London. He came to us and we helped him on his way.’
She stared at him, relief and puzzlement clouding her mind. ‘Why did he come to you?’
The man’s glance flicked the door and he leaned forward lowering his voice. ‘He had his reasons. I must confess my wife and myself have shared your concerns, Mistress Ashley. We too have been troubled over the lack of word from Jonathan.’
Kate too leaned forward and said in a lowered voice. ‘If he did indeed take a boat to France, is it possible the boat was lost in the crossing?’
Freeman’s lips tightened and he shook his head. ‘I would have heard.’ He sat back. ‘Let us not think the worst. Leave your enquiries with me for now and I will see what can be discovered. ’
Tears of gratitude sprang into Kate’s eyes as she felt the weight of concern being lifted from her shoulders. ‘Thank you, Master Freeman. In a world gone mad with hate and revenge, it is reassuring to know that we are not entirely without friends. I am so grateful he sought you out. I am staying at the White Swan at Southwark. Please send me word as soon as you have discovered something.’
